Producing information on the dispensing of objects.
The need for better inventory management and more efficient supply chain flow of dispensable tools and parts has led to a variety of dispensing machines. Some of these machines have produced information on the dispensing of objects, but the production and flow of such information has been expensive and inefficient. Information flow systems accompanying such dispensers have included wired, wireless, and internet connections. The cost and complexity of these have resulted in many supply chains for dispensable tools and objects continuing to operate with manual and inadequate control systems.
The invention aims to solve these problems by making a dispensing system inexpensive to buy and maintain while being able to provide all the information necessary for efficient supply chain control. The inventive way of meeting these needs can make more efficient supply chain dispensing and control available to small users as well as large.
The inventive system accomplishes its goals by combining several features. To insure low cost, for example, the invention uses portable dispensing cases that can be filled at a loading site with objects to be dispensed at a dispensing site. Besides the convenience of transporting dispensable objects in portable cases, the cases also carry information flowing back and forth between the loading site and the dispensing site.
For this purpose, each case is provided with microcircuitry that includes a memory of the objects loaded into the case. By means of connections with the onboard microcircuitry, the portable cases communicate with a dispensing controller at the dispensing site and with a reload controller at the loading site.
The reload controller sends loading information to the microcircuitry in the case, which retains a memory of the loaded objects and their locations within the case. This memory moves with the case to the dispensing site where the loading information is available to the dispensing controller.
The dispensing controller has an interface accessible to a requester of an object, and the dispensing controller can be programmed with whatever transactional information and requirements are appropriate to the dispensing of objects. For example, a person requesting an object and working via the interface can input a PIN, a job number, a request for an object, and possibly additional information such as a machine, product, project, or other identity intending to use the object. The dispensing controller cooperates with the microcircuitry in the portable case to dispense an object whenever an object request is authorized. Transactional information about the object dispensing is thus acquired by the dispensing controller and is communicated to the microcircuitry in the portable case for return to the loading site.
Information on what is available for dispensing, what has been dispensed, and other transactional information can be downloaded from the dispensing controller at the dispensing site for management control of the facility where the objects are used. Similarly, such information returns via the microcircuitry in the portable case to the loading site where it can be downloaded, preferably via the reload controller, for management control of the supply chain. All this makes the information flow effective and low-cost and allows the supply chain to respond to actual usage, rather than demand or estimates of possible future usage, which also improves efficiency.